Stars:

Top-Rated Episodes

Tania's corpse is found but despite police warnings drug-addicted girls still take risks for money. Paula Clennell,whose children were taken into care because of her life-style, sees Brian Tobin,who ...

Anneli's and Paula's bodies are found, nude and cruciform, yards from each other in woodlands. At a meeting where the police try to mollify irate householders enraged by the prostitutes' activities ...

This is a dramatisation of the real-life investigation into the notorious Yorkshire Ripper murders of the late 1970s, showing the effect that it had on the health and career of Assistant ... See full summary »

Yorkshire award-winning crime drama by Sally Wainwright following a young woman's release from prison after 15 or 16 years time served for murdering two police officers. All she wants now is to find her younger sister.

The story about the murder of an 11-year-old boy, Rhys Jones in Croxteth, Liverpool, in 2007 and his parents, Melanie's and Steve's ordeal, and how Rhys's murderer and associates were eventually brought to justice.

In an English town, the choir master's personal musical ambition and crush for the new soprano drive him to blow up his marriage (with children) for her. Mother and son Kyle suddenly find ... See full summary »

Storyline

Dramatised documentary about the killings of five young women by Steve Wright in the Ipswich area in 2006, concentrating on the last few days of the victims' lives, the effects of their deaths on their families, and the police investigation to find the murderer.Written by
Anonymous

Production Co:

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

Explanatory text at the beginning of each episode: "This drama, written by Stephen Butchard, is based on the personal testimonies of many of those most closely involved in the events that took place in Ipswich in the winter of 2006". See more »

User Reviews

Spread over three nights, this BBC drama on the murders in Ipswich of five women in the run up to Christmas 2006 made for challenging and occasionally disturbing viewing. That time-proximity today to the actual events only heightens the required empathy and sympathy of the programme-makers to the subject matter and this it patently does, from the title of the piece onwards (the original tabloid coverage of the killings unfeelingly focused on the murdered women all being prostitutes, dehumanising the victims at a stroke).

For me, probably like most UK residents, the two most remembered TV images from the original investigation were firstly the CCTV images of one of the young women heading into the red light district on the local train, preening herself, readying herself for her "work" and just as tragically the fact that another of the victims was actually interviewed by national TV (her back to camera, obviously) before being killed the next night.

Boldly and justifiably, the drama makes no concession to the murderer at all, concentrating wholly on the lives and desperate motivations of the women themselves. There's zero sensationalism either, with the murders themselves only suggested by the killer's car ominously approaching the victims at night-time. He's duly caught at the end, but in no sense was this a conventional crime drama.

That said, I did personally find the candid insight into the drug addicted, poverty driven lives of the prostitutes disturbing and hard to stomach at times and occasionally the dialogue tended to be, although only very occasionally, maudlin and over-ripe. The ensemble acting was laudably grounded in realism, although not wholly consistent, if anything, I appreciated more the actors playing the over-run police service than those portraying either the victims or their families.

My biggest qualm however was that the story opened with one girl already murdered with no background story at all to her situation, making me wonder if her family denied the producers access to her information. For me this did however imbalance the whole, almost reducing the drama to "four daughters" but all told, this was a commendably brave approach to a difficult subject, treating its difficult central, characters by and large with honesty and dignity, as they deserved.

14 of 17 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this